Sea of Dreams (The American Heroes Series Book 2) (50 page)

Lying beside his wife and watching her feed the newborn, Beck couldn’t help his thoughts from lingering on Ed Masterson and the man’s potential release from prison.  He’d never really given the man any thought the entire time he’d known Blakesley, but now, he was starting to think heavily on him, seriously wondering how he would react if Ed found out where Blakesley was and came to see her. 

As Beck watched Emma tug hungrily at Blakesley’s breast, he was starting to feel extremely protective and extremely territorial of his girls. Not that he wasn’t always, but now there was more to it. He knew for a fact that if the man came around, he’d probably strike first and ask questions later. For the hell that man put Blakesley through, he deserved all that and more.

Blakesley had received a call that morning from the State of California Real Estate division about the Benjamin and Dulcinea Earp home regarding all of the artifacts and personal family possessions.  As Beck got dressed to take the girls to school and head over to the base, Blakesley made breakfast and chatted with the real estate agent who had handled the transaction.

Lizzie wanted toast, eggs and sausage while Cadee wanted eggs and cheese.  Crosby wanted everything everyone else did and Charlotte cried because she wasn’t allowed to eat leftover cupcakes from the night before.  Beck entered the kitchen to the chaos, kissing Blakesley as she cradled the phone between her shoulder and ear while manipulating the frying pan full of scrambled eggs.  Beck just grinned at her multitasking, telling Lizzie to help Blakesley out and make the toast.  

As Beck fussed with the collar of his khaki naval shirt, Charlotte climbed down from her chair and tried to talk him into letting her have the cupcakes. Somehow, Alfie got in and the dog wedged himself underneath the breakfast bar, waiting for any food to fall to the floor. Beck put Charlotte back on her stool and was trying to get the dog out from underneath the breakfast bar when the cry of a newborn filled the air to add to the bedlam.

Lizzie dropped what she was doing and ran into the master bedroom as the other three girls tried to follow. It was the most comical thing Beck had ever seen but something that was now commonplace in their home; Emma would cry and all four girls would go running to the source like a stampede.  Beck kept the little girls on their stools while he followed Lizzie into the bedroom, but Lizzie was faster than her old man and carefully picked Emma up from her bassinet.  The teenager was quite competent with the baby and Beck put his arm around her shoulders, grinning at his daughter as she cuddled her new sister.

“You kind of like her, don’t you?” he asked softly.

Lizzie nodded. “She’s so sweet,” she cooed. “I love her so much.  I never thought I’d have a baby sister, not ever.”

Beck kissed her on the temple. “Now you’ve got four.”

Lizzie grinned. “It’s pretty cool.”

He laughed softly. “Let’s go get her fed, okay?”

Very carefully, Lizzie walked back out to the kitchen with Emma in her arms.  Blakesley, still on the phone with the real estate guy, saw the baby and went straight to the freezer.  She pulled out one of the many bottles she had filled with breast milk and ran hot water into a cup, putting the bottle in to it to defrost it.  As the milk defrosted, Beck found himself begging his oldest daughter for the baby.

“Just let me hold her before I go,” he pleaded. “I won’t get to see her until tonight.”

Lizzie carefully rocked the baby. “But you get to feed her at night, Dad. I don’t.”

Beck threw up his arms. “If you want to feed her during the night, be my guest. I have no problem with that.”

“Can she sleep in my room?”

He shook his head, smiling. “No, baby girl,” he said. “She needs to stay with her mother for now.”

With a reluctant face, Lizzie handed over the baby to her father’s waiting arms.  Beck greedily soaked up the time with the infant, soothing her has she hungrily fussed until Blakesley abruptly hung up the phone.  She went straight to Beck.

“Here,” she said. “Give her to me. You finish with the eggs.”

Beck made his displeasure known but he dutifully switched places with her and handed over the baby.  Blakesley sat on the stool vacated by Lizzie, uncovered a plump breast, and plopped Emma on the nipple.  The infant quieted immediately.

Lizzie was still standing by the sink with the half-defrosted bottle of breast milk in her hand.  She dramatically pouted.

“But I wanted to feed her,” she whined.

Blakesley grinned at her step-daughter. “You still can,” she assured her. “This will quiet her enough to give the bottle time to defrost.  Pop it in the microwave for a few seconds. That will speed things up.”

Happy again, Lizzie did as she was told. Soon enough, she was seated on the stool with the baby in her arms, carefully feeding her a couple of ounces of breast milk. Cadee, Crosby and Charlotte hung all over Lizzie, watching their sister eat and completely ignoring the eggs that Beck had laid out before them. As Blakesley buttoned up her shirt, Beck finished with his kitchen duty and put his arm around her.

“All of our girls,” he grinned as he kissed her forehead. “All five of them.”

Together, they watched for a few moments as the girls fed the baby. It was sweet and heartwarming.  Beck finally gave his wife a squeeze.

“I hate to break this up, but we’ve got to get going,” he told her, going to the stools and lifting Crosby and Charlotte down. “Go get your stuff. The bus for school is leaving in five minutes.”

The little girls scattered and Cadee soon followed, but more slowly. She was jealous that Lizzie got to feed the baby and she didn’t. As she stomped out of the kitchen, Beck went to gather his keys and wallet.  Blakesley eventually took the baby back from Lizzie so she could go get her things.  Alone in the kitchen feeding Emma the rest of the bottle, Blakesley glanced up at Beck came back into the room.

“I’ve got two meetings today and both should run long, so I’m not sure when I’ll be home,” he told her. “One of them is the final interview for the position at the Warfare Center, so keep your fingers crossed.”

Blakesley smiled. “You’ll do great,” she assured him. “You know how much they want you.”

He wriggled his eyebrows modestly, bending over to kiss Emma’s head and then his wife’s sweet lips.

“What are your plans for the day?” he asked.

She wiped her lip-gloss from his lips.  “I’m going to head up to the old homestead to start looking through the old artifacts to see if there’s anything we want to keep,” she replied. “That’s what the real estate agent and I were talking about when you came into the kitchen.  I had it written into the sale contract that our family got first right of refusal for anything on the grounds.”

Beck gave her a very unhappy expression. “Baby, I don’t want Emma up there,” he said. “I don’t even want you up there.  That whole place is….”

She put up a hand, cutting him off. “I know,” she said softly, firmly, “but escrow is going to close at the end of the week and I need to get in there while I can. After that, it’s out of my hands.”

“Can you at least wait until I get off work?”

She pursed her lips irritably. “You just said you don’t know when you’ll be home,” she pointed out.  “I’m going to take Nikki with me so she can sit in the car and watch Emma while I check out the stuff they’ve found.  Emma won’t go in the house at all, I promise.”

He still wasn’t happy. “Can we go tomorrow?” he tried again.

She grunted, frustrated. “Beck, I promise I will be careful,” she stressed. “I’ll watch where I’m going, I won’t go in the room with the pit unless someone else is with me, and I’ll be very, very careful. Okay?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“No.”

He rolled his eyes. “Fine,” he was starting to get grumpy. “You just make sure Emma stays in the car with Nikki.  I don’t want the baby out and about. She’s not even two weeks old yet, for Christ’s sake.”

Blakesley nodded with strained patience. “Yes, Daddy.”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I. Don’t you trust me any more than that?”

He softened somewhat. “You know I do,” he tone softened. “I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“I won’t, I promise.”

He scratched his head, knowing it was the best he could do with her.  She was a stubborn and determined woman.

“Speaking of Nikki,” he said, “does she seem a little strange to you since the baby was born?”

Blakesley shrugged, putting Emma on her shoulder to burp her now that the milk was gone. “No,” she said. “She’s always kind of quiet. Why? Does she seem strange to you?”

Beck thought on the question. “Nothing I can put my finger on,” he lifted his big shoulders. “I don’t really know her so I guess I can’t make that judgment on whether she’s been abnormally quiet lately.”

“I think you scare her.”

She was grinning so Beck leaned over and kissed her again. “I’ve got to go,” he said, listening to the girls as they gathered in the entry. “I’ll call you later. Love you.”

“Love you, too. Good luck today.”

He gave her one of his best sexy smiles, winked at her, and was gone.

***

Blakesley felt a good deal of sadness as she pulled into the driveway of the old homestead.  So much of her family’s history was here, a depth of history that a lot of American families didn’t have, and she was sorry to have to let it go.  Not that she regretted selling the place, but still, she felt somewhat guilty for having been the weak link in the Earp chain.  She couldn’t hold on to the house.

The day was mild and she parked her BMW SUV underneath a thick oak tree for shade. She had brought Gina along because the woman wasn’t working that day and because she’d never seen the house before.  Plus, Beck felt much better with Gina going along, convinced that Gina would keep Blakesley out of trouble and keep an eye on her.

 Nikki sat in the back with Emma, who was sleeping peacefully.  Rolling down the windows to provide some air in the mild temperatures, Blakesley told Nikki to stay in the car with Emma and under no circumstance should she leave or get out.  Nikki had her cell phone and promised to call Blakesley if she needed her.

Satisfied, Blakesley and Gina climbed out of the car and headed for the public wing.  She was still wearing her maternity jeans even though she’d lost almost all of the baby weight, and a pretty turquoise colored empire-waist blouse that made her look like she had enormous boobs.  Beck thought it was the greatest shirt ever, but the truth was that it was comfortable.  Blakesley couldn’t resist wearing her platform sandals, shoes she had been banned from wearing during pregnancy, so feeling moderately fashionable, she strolled up to the public wing and stuck her head into the open door.

“Hello?” she called.

A faint response came from somewhere in the house.  Wandering in to the great room with its gigantic fireplace, Gina looked around with awe.

“Oh, my God,” she gasped. “This place is amazing.”

Blakesley looked around as well, the last look at something that belonged to her. “I know,” she agreed. “It’s been in my family for over one hundred and fifty years.”

Gina was over by the great plugged fireplace. “Beck told me,” she said. “He said that your cousin was Wyatt Earp.”

Blakesley nodded. “My great-great-great-great grandfather and Wyatt’s father were brothers.”

“That’s really cool.”

Blakesley just smiled and shrugged. “It is, kind of,” she said, pointing to the fireplace. “See that tile? It’s all original to the house. Did you see it when we came in?”

Gina nodded. “Gorgeous,” she peered at the fireplace. “This thing is massive, isn’t it? If you got a good blaze going in there, you’d burn up the whole damn house.”

Blakesley giggled. “It’s plugged,” she replied. “The contractor was in the process of trying to restore it but all of that was halted when I sold the house. I don’t know what the state will do, if anything.”

As Gina wandered over to look more closely at the hand-painted Mexican tiles on the mantle, Dr. Welton emerged from another doorway.

“Good morning,” he said cheerily.

Blakesley turned to look at him. “Good morning,” she replied. “I was talking to one of the real estate agents this morning and he told me to head over here to go through all of the stuff you found to see if any of it was near and dear to my family.”

Dr. Welton nodded. “Absolutely. There’s a ton of stuff.”

Gina stepped forward and Blakesley introduced her to the archaeologist.  Then she refocused on the gist of their conversation.

“Are you still cleaning out that tunnel?”

Dr. Welton motioned the women to follow. “Still,” he said. “Watch your step when you come in the room; we’ve reinforced the pit but it’s still dangerous. Just stay clear of it.”

Gina took Blakesley’s hand when they went into the big, dusty room, peering uncomfortably at the hole in the floor. Dr. Welton took the women around to the nearest table, an eight foot long plank that was covered in artifacts.  Everything was tagged and carefully set out, including the rifle that had Beck’s interest.  Blakesley pointed at the rifle.

“That’s the first thing I’ll take,” she said. “My husband loved it.”

Dr. Welton nodded. “It’s a fine piece,” he agreed. “Take a look over here. I think there’s something you might like.”

Blakesley and Gina followed him over to a second table that had a bunch of smaller items on it.  There was a conservator in a chair next to the table, using a giant lighted magnifying glass to inspect a piece that Blakesley couldn’t quite see.  Dr. Welton gestured to the table.

“We found all of this stuff in old crates down there,” he said. “I hate to say this, but it looks like robbers were using that cave that opens up into the canyon.”

Blakesley looked at him curiously. “Why do you say that?”

Dr. Welton carefully picked up the nearest artifact; it was a bag of some kind, velvet, with delicate gold stitching upon the wine-colored fabric. 

“This is a lady’s purse from the 1880’s,” he explained. “There were dozens of them down there, some picked clean and some not.  We found purses with money, watches, jewelry, you name it.  Look at all of the jewelry we found.”